Watch our new TUBERS video!
Water is one of Europe’s most valuable resources, yet drinking water networks continue to face major challenges. Ageing infrastructure, hidden leaks, difficult-to-access pipe sections and costly maintenance operations make pipeline inspection and repair a complex task for water operators. Traditional interventions often require excavation, service disruption and extensive manual work, making them time-consuming, expensive and sometimes unsafe.
The TUBERS project is working to change this.
At the heart of the project is a simple but ambitious vision: to help water operators inspect, understand and maintain their networks from the inside, with fewer disruptions and better data.
A modular robotic ecosystem for water networks
TUBERS is developing a robotic ecosystem designed to support the inspection and maintenance of drinking water pipelines. The project combines several advanced technological building blocks, each addressing a different part of the pipeline maintenance challenge.
One of these technologies is the soft inchworm robot, a bio-inspired robotic platform designed to move inside pipe segments using a peristaltic locomotion principle. Its flexible structure makes it suitable for navigating confined environments, while its repair-oriented design supports targeted in-pipe maintenance operations.
The project also integrates an Ultrasonic Testing module, developed to support high-accuracy inspection of pipe walls. Ultrasonic inspection can provide valuable information about material condition, wall thickness reduction and potential defects, helping operators move from reactive maintenance towards more data-driven asset management.
Alongside the robotic and sensing technologies, TUBERS is developing an AI-powered Decision Support System. This digital layer is designed to process inspection data, support defect identification and assist operators in planning maintenance actions. By combining inspection results with explainable machine learning and maintenance planning tools, TUBERS aims to provide operators with actionable insights rather than raw data alone.
From inspection to better decisions
One of the key challenges in water infrastructure management is not only detecting problems, but deciding what to do next. A defect inside a pipeline may require monitoring, further inspection, repair, replacement or no immediate action, depending on its severity, location and operational context.
The TUBERS approach is built around this broader decision-making need. The project is not only focused on robotic movement inside pipes, but also on how inspection data can be transformed into useful information for asset managers, maintenance teams and water utilities.
By combining visual inspection, ultrasonic data, robotics and AI-based analysis, TUBERS aims to support more targeted interventions. This can help reduce unnecessary excavation, improve understanding of pipe condition and contribute to more efficient planning of maintenance budgets.
A European collaboration for resilient water infrastructure
TUBERS brings together a multidisciplinary consortium with expertise in robotics, engineering, ultrasonic inspection, artificial intelligence, system integration and water network operation. The project includes technology developers, research partners and water utility stakeholders, ensuring that the solution is developed with both technical innovation and real operational needs in mind.
The project’s communication activities, including the official presentation video, aim to show how these technologies work together and how they can contribute to the future of water infrastructure maintenance.
The new TUBERS video presents the project’s mission, technologies and expected impact through a combination of real footage, system visuals and animated explanations. It highlights why pipeline inspection remains a critical challenge and how modular robotic tools can help water operators improve safety, efficiency and sustainability.
Towards smarter, safer and more sustainable water management
Water losses are not only an economic issue; they are also an environmental and societal challenge. Producing, transporting and treating drinking water consumes energy, and every avoidable loss adds pressure to already stressed water systems. Better inspection and maintenance tools can help utilities preserve resources, reduce operational risks and support more resilient infrastructure.
TUBERS contributes to this goal by developing technologies that can make pipeline inspection more accessible, data-driven and less invasive. Through robotics, ultrasonic sensing and AI-supported decision-making, the project is helping to lay the foundation for a smarter approach to water network maintenance.